Oh, we have your information…

I have to confess to a deep failing. I guess I have a little slightly immoral streak at times – primarily in minor ways, but it is contradictory to my even stronger sense of justice and standing up for what is right. People are complex, what can I say? I don’t need to go into all of the ways I bend the rules, but recently I hit a car and I didn’t hang around. It seemed like a pretty insignificant touching of cars, and I was in a hurry to go to dinner with my friends, who were waiting. I know, I know, I should have stayed, or at the very least left my number. But I didn’t. I did get into my friends’ car, leaving my white car behind next to his black car with a pale white stripe down the side. If I could turn back time, there are a lot of things I would do differently in my life, but definitely I would have left a note on this car.

While enjoying a pre-dinner Aperol Spritz and trying to forget about the incident, my cell phone rang. It was the local police. After determining that I was going to cooperate, that I admitted guilt, and that I would face up to my responsibilities, the policeman was pretty nice. We settled on my meeting with the vehicle’s owner the next day (afterall, I was at dinner!). One of my nightmare scenarios since moving to Spain has been that I would have an accident with a Spaniard/Catalan who would exit his vehicle and flail his arms and scream at me. I asked the policeman if the man whose car I hit was nice, and he said yes. What a relief. As we were about to hang up, I asked the policeman if he wanted my information. That’s when he said in a stern, yet condescending way, “Oh, we HAVE your information!” Yes, they would, I suppose, have it all from my car registration. Also, the Spanish have their ways. See one of my early posts, “They’re Watching Me!”

The next day, my Catalan neighbor accompanied me to meet the car owner. Thank God. I think it would have gone smoothly, regardless, but it was definitely the moral support I needed. The car owner was from Granada and we chit-chatted about Andalucía and it was all quite friendly. We got it handled pretty easily. Whew!

Since returning to Begur this Spring after my cancer treatments, I’ve felt that my life would be a little different, slightly slower. But it is also coinciding with the loss of a few friends for various reasons (not death!) – moving, etc. So I’ve joined a couple of new groups and I’m meeting new people. It is more of a renaissance than I had even contemplated. But, no matter what challenges or disappointments hurdle my way, I have this every day…